EXCLUSIVE: The 10x Technology Supporting ‘Life’s Ledger’ for 180,000 Community-Minded Kiwis

Chase, the UK mobile-only challenger spun out by US giant JP Morgan in 2021, and The Co-operative Bank of New Zealand, which has been serving customers for a century and returning profits to them since 2013, are hemispheres apart – not just literally, but conceptually and structurally, too.

10x Banking, the architects who built the first from the ground up, announced this week that they’re about to redesign the second.  Newly appointed Chief Revenue Officer Tom Bentley believes that illustrates the unique strength of today’s Cloud-native platforms ‘to allow a bank to really find the uniqueness that makes your entity you’. 

The early gold-rush era of banking-in-a-box was characterised by ‘spin-em-up, spin-em-down’ challengers that disappeared without trace because there was fundamentally ‘nothing interesting about their proposition’, he says. Today’s more mature environment is all about using the technology to discover, understand and embody a bank’s distinct point of difference.

As 10x followed the digital banking horizon – going out from the company’s birthplace in the UK nine years ago to serving clients in Africa, Asia and Australasia today – it’s ability to faithfully capture and deliver that has come to define its success. And nowhere has it used its ‘meta core’ to greater effect than among a growing global portfolio of mutual societies, credit unions and co-ops.

Given their heritage and often hyper-local customer base, they tend to share similar barriers to modernisation. Well-loved organisations like the UK’s 180-year-old West Bromwich Building Society with its almost half a million members – for whom 10x will soon be delivering a multi-phase digital transformation in partnership with Deloitte – are central to many communities, and often crucial to financial inclusion. But they badly need to move with the times. 

The ‘meta core’, which leverages SaaS efficiency while allowing organisations to maintain control of their code, has proven adept at harmonising in-branch banking with digital experiences that cater to the changing needs of members at a massive scale. And it can do that, it says, while reducing risk and cost.

“What digital banks have taught us is that, by embracing many modern technologies and modern development principles, you can build really fast in a stable way,” says Bentley. “Secondly, these programmes of work don’t have to be hundreds of millions of dollars. So, whether you’re one of the largest banks in the world – like JP Morgan with its challenger Chase – or The Co-operative of New Zealand, you can use the same technology in a really interesting way. The Co-operative is building some really exciting capabilities for its members.” 

The partnership in New Zealand – the first there for 10x – goes beyond core technology solutions, though. A happy meeting of two mutually aligned organisations, it touches on some core beliefs as well.

Both are B Corp certified, which signals that an organisation meets high standards of social and environmental performance, transparency, and accountability. It’s a global movement of businesses demonstrating a commitment to people and the planet alongside profit. 

10x has a dedicated Impact team to deliver the B Corp vision, guided by an Impact Committee made up of representatives from across the business, including senior leadership. 

The Co-operative Bank of New Zealand is one of only two B Corp certificated banks in the country and is also the only bank wholly owned by its customers, to whom it’s returned more than $24million in profit-sharing since 2013.

Announcing their new partnership this week, 10x Founder and CEO Anthony Jenkins said it deepened the technology company’s commitment to the mutual and co-operative sector globally, and built on recent successes with member-focussed institutions across APAC, Europe and the UK. 

“The Co-operative Bank’s customer-first values perfectly align with our mission to make banking 10 times better for everyone, and as fellow B-Corps, we share a cultural DNA,” he said. “We’re proud to support their journey as they build the digital foundations for their next century of service.” 

The bank hopes its digital transition will drive growth, by attracting more community-minded Kiwis, and develop deeper relationships with customers through agile digital services. 

“They’re a very well-loved, customer-centric brand within the market,” says Bentley.  “That comes down to a understanding their customer needs, but, more importantly, being there from the beginning of a customer’s banking journey, all the way to the end. Creating that centricity is underpinned by really, really good operations that meet regulations while creating a very close-knit product fit, based on the individual.

“I’m a great believer that in financial services, we’re in a moments economy – you can kind of pin your life on key events that you’ve had, which somehow always have some financial dimension to them, whether it’s saving for a first house, your first checking account, the first time you put a deposit down, all the way to retiring and how you pass on generational wealth. 

“At the heart of it is your life’s ledger; your debits and credits across that journey. Why a technology such as 10x is so vital, is because it underpins that journey from start to finish. And what’s exciting is the way different fintechs, brands and banks jump into that ledger to create compelling moments. And that’s a common thread, whether it’s in New Zealand or Australia, or the UK.”